A cannon on the Jackson line at the Chalmette Battle Field seen here in 2006. (Michael E. Palmer/Palmer's Almanac)

On this day 200 years ago 6,000 hardened British troops lined up in majestic style and marched toward a ragtag American army waiting behind a fortified defensive wall at the Rodriguez Canal located on the Chalmette Plantation nine miles south of New Orleans. The ragtag army, commanded by General Andrew Jackson, was made up of Tennesseeans, Kentuckians, Choctaws, free Blacks, Creoles, merchants, doctors, lawyers and pirates. As the British approached, Jackson’s army let loose a deadly barrage of rifle, musket and cannon fire dropping the British by the hundreds in the open field south of the canal. The British general leading the charge, Edward Packenham was destroyed by a cannonball while attempting to rally his men.The Kentuckians, who chose to show up for the battle even though they had no guns, stood in the rear and cheered Jackson as he rode horseback along the line directing the action against the British. The British suffered 2,037 killed, wounded or missing while the Americans had only seven killed and six wounded at the canal. Packenham's remains were packed in a barrel of rum and shipped back to England. Enjoy a photographic tour of the battlefield in the slideshow below.